Climate change takes back seat as US Democrats focus on Trump, costs

Climate change has been the backdrop to Charles Hughes' entire life, from kindergarten lessons about disappearing habitats to wildfire smoke billowing through the air he breathed while growing up in Colorado. But now that he's a college student in Massachusetts, he said global warming is rarely a top issue.

"Honestly, it doesn't come up as much," said Hughes, who chairs the state's chapter of the College Democrats.

During President Donald Trump's first term and especially during the Democratic primaries to determine who would run against him in 2020, Democrats spoke constantly about climate change. They used it to rally young voters such as Hughes, fuelling protests and sweeping demands to remake the economy with proposals like the Green New Deal.

But there has been a national shift in the conversation that is sharp enough for some researchers to coin the term "climate hushing" to describe it. The Searchlight Institute, a Democratic think tank, urged the party to stop mentioning climate change because it is not a priority for voters.

The Sunrise Movement, a left-wing group that pushed global warming as a top issue for young people, switched its mission last fall to a broader mandate of fighting the Republican president.

The shift was encapsulated by the Democratic primary for US Senate in Massachusetts on Tuesday as the incumbent, Ed Markey, 80, tried to fend off a challenge from US Rep Seth Moulton, 47. Although Markey still talks about sponsoring the Green New Deal, his campaign is more focused on other issues to burnish his left-wing bona fides and prove to voters that he is not too old for the job.

It is the latest example of how climate change has been eclipsed by issues such as affordability, US support for Israel and, above all, how to confront Trump.

"Six years ago, Green New Deal was every phrase out of Ed Markey's mouth every chance he got. That is not the case now," said Mary Anne Marsh, a veteran Democratic strategist in Massachusetts. "It's about who's best to fight. Period, full stop. Everything falls under that."

Even if the political discussion on climate change has quieted, the planet has not. Scientists say there is an increasing chance that by the end of the year, 2026 could be the hottest year on record, or at least come close. A strengthening El Nino is forecast to be off the charts, spiking global temperatures.

Some advocates expect the issue to return to centre stage if Democrats retake the US House in November and climate-sparked disasters dominate the winter.

US Sen Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a prominent Democratic voice on climate change, said in an interview that ignoring the issue is a major strategic "blunder." "Climate change has moved from the science department into the economics department," he said. "It's now battering people's home insurance, property values, pocketbook concerns.